Bent
by Sempai Sunny
Summary: After the series. The usual spoilers. Milly, Vash, and Meryl work their way back to May City and meet some friends on the way. A songfic. PG-13 for the ending


Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun (though I wouldn't mind if I did). I also do not own "Bent" by Matchbox Twenty. So, please don't sue me. I have to finish high school, you know. Vash's POV. And you know the drill: song lyrics denoted by *. One mean Wolfwood spoiler. After the series, I guess. Some old friends revisited! ^_~ ::kuroneko grabs ankle in death grip::  
  
Bent  
  
She's so beautiful. The way her silky black hair falls in her face when she's angry. How she reprimands me constantly, showing the world she doesn't love me, even though deep inside I know she does. And I love her back. She knows it.  
  
"Vash, you've got to get a grip. That girl's only going to be around for a little while in the span of your life," a voice inside my head tells me. That voice is Nicholas. The good priest who stayed with us for a while, from the time when he was just a speck on the horizon, until his untimely passing on due to my brother.  
  
*If I fall along the way  
  
Pick me up and dust me off  
  
If I get too tired to make it  
  
Be my breath so I can walk*  
  
I plop down in the dust. I need a break, and I know Milly and Meryl do too. Milly's carrying Kuroneko in her arms, stun gun across her back. Meryl stands, watching for any sign of threat. A bus passes us, en route to May City, according to the sign on the front. I look around, to see if there's a glint of metal, if we'd gone back in time. No dice. I laugh at my own joke, remembering the alien ship which we'd dubbed as a casino.  
  
"You know, Vash. Lately I've been getting more and more tempted to turn you in, take the $$60 billion and run away. I don't know where to, but far away from you." Meryl's gray eyes stared down at me. Her eyes are too kind for her to be serious.  
  
*If I need some of your love again  
  
Give me more than I can stand  
  
When my smile gets old and faded  
  
Wait around I'll smile again*  
  
The bus comes back. "You guys need a lift?" the driver yells out at us. I look at the girls, then count out $$300.  
  
"Vash, I can pay for myself," Meryl rummages through her cloak, knocking one of her Derringers to the ground. It shoots off, but I redirect the trajectory with a pebble so it doesn't hit her.  
  
"Maybe you should get a safety for those, little lady," the driver jokes as she hands him the fare. "Wait, I remember you guys. A few years ago, I think. Don't you have that old cheapo priest in your entourage? He had some box he kept shoving on people's heads."  
  
I could have slapped the driver, but I don't. I look back at Milly, who is on the brink of tears because of what the man said. I shove the rest of the fare, sans Meryl's portion, into his hands, threw Milly's stun gun on the cargo hold, and led them on the bus.  
  
There were two empty seats near the back, just like the last time we were on this bus. I let Milly have a seat to herself, despite Meryl's attempts to comfort her. "Just let her have some time to herself," I whisper and kiss her on the ear.  
  
I slide into the seat opposite Milly, and Meryl sits down next to me, putting her head on my shoulder. "Is it just me, or does the person in front of us look vaguely familiar?" She asks me. I stare ahead, at the blonde ponytail and red jacket.  
  
"Maryanne?" I ask feebly.  
  
The woman turns around. "Well, if it isn't my good old bodyguard. How've you been, stranger? Oh, and Meryl! How nice to see you again!" Her lavender eyes flash a smile.  
  
"We've been fine, Maryanne. How have things been going back home?" Meryl asks, due to my utter inability to speak.  
  
"Well, there aren't any spooks on the roof at the Cezar place, I'm sure Vash is pleased to know," Maryanne teases, reminescent of a time when I tried to peek in her bathroom window, and passed it off as spooks to get Milly off my case. I sulk until she turns around again and goes back to staring out the window at the barren landscape.  
  
"Wasn't it nice to see her again, seeing as how you liked her so much?" Meryl jabs my arm.  
  
*Shouldn't be so complicated  
  
Just hold me and then  
  
Just hold me again  
  
Can you help me I'm bent  
  
I'm so scared that I'll never  
  
Get put back together  
  
Keep breaking me in  
  
And this is how will live  
  
With you and me bent*  
  
May City is just how I remember it. I treat the girls to dinner at the restaurant run by Neil's parents. They sure seem glad to see me.  
  
"Vash! You're back!" Neil grabs me in a tight hug. His mother smiles weakly and his father waves. "Did you know that they haven't had a quick draw contest since you and the priest competed all those years ago? They're too afraid that you'll come back and actually kill someone." Neil chatters incessantly as his mother serves us our dinner.  
  
"Well," Meryl murmurs, "That's nice to know. We don't have to worry about someone killing Vash and collecting the bounty."  
  
In the hotel where we put ourselves up for the night, Milly collapses on her bed and falls asleep, Kuroneko curled up near her heart. "Nyao..." it purrs softly.  
  
*If I couldn't sleep, could you sleep?  
  
Could you paint me better off?  
  
Could you sympathize with my needs?  
  
I know you think I need a lot  
  
I started out clean but I'm jaded  
  
Just falling and  
  
Just breaking the skin*  
  
I sit up. It is three in the morning and I still can't sleep. "Vash?" Meryl peeks through the ajar door.  
  
"Come in," I whisper. I slide over on the bed, making room for her as she sits down beside me.  
  
"Milly's crying in her sleep, probably dreaming back to that day. It was years ago, but she still dreams and remembers as if it were yesterday. I wanted to kill the bus driver for what he said about Wolfwood, even though he couldn't have known what had happened." Meryl buries her face into my arm.  
  
"Meryl," I whisper. She looks up and kisses me, full on. I lie down, with her on top of me, and I just hold her.  
  
"Oh, no, Vash," she says, a stern look in her eye. "I don't want to do that."  
  
"I didn't say we were going to. We can just lie here all night, eventually drifting off to sleep, hopefully. I never said anything about sex."  
  
Meryl, obviously not believing me, gets up and walks out. "I'm sorry Vash."  
  
I wish she had stayed, as I feel my heart break into a thousand pieces.  
  
*Can you help me I'm bent  
  
I'm so scared that I'll never  
  
Get put back together  
  
Keep breaking me in  
  
And this is how we will live  
  
With you and me bent*  
  
The next dawn, I see two little birds on my windowsill. Rem is on my mind. I try to meditate on love and peace, but, as usual, other things distract me. I push my hair into it's normal style, and make myself some breakfast in the tiny kitchen in this room. The door creaks open. Meryl.  
  
*Start bending me  
  
It's never enough  
  
'Till I feel all your pieces  
  
Start bending me  
  
Keep bending me until  
  
I'm completely broken in*  
  
"Meryl, what's wrong," I dash over to her, my bagel forgotten. Her cheeks are stained with tears and her eyes bloodshot.  
  
"M-M-Milly," she weeps, muffled because she has buried her face in my chest.  
  
I lead her out into the hallway and down the hall to the room she shared with Milly. The taller insurance girl is lying on the bed, looking to be sleeping peacefully. "That's strange," I think. "She never sleeps this late."  
  
I drop Meryl's hand and walk over to where Milly is resting. "Wake up, Mil, wake up," I whisper. I touch her cheek and find it is cold as death. On the floor are several bottles of whiskey.  
  
"V-Vash, s-s-she's d-d," Meryl cuts herself off with her own tears. I run out of the room, out of the hotel, down to the Neil's family's restaurant.  
  
"Neil!" I cry, as I see him wiping down a table in the main room. "Where are your parents?" I ask, gasping for air, clutching the stitch in my side.  
  
"Hello Mr. Vash. Is something wrong?" Neil's mother walks out from the kitchen.  
  
"Do you know of any doctors?"  
  
"I have some training as a nurse. Did one of the girls get hurt?" Concern is as clear on her face as the twin suns outside.  
  
"Sort of. Come on!"  
  
*Shouldn't be so complicated  
  
Just touch me and then  
  
Just touch me again  
  
Can you help me I'm bent  
  
I'm so scared that I'll never  
  
Get put back together*  
  
Back at the hotel, Neil's mother checks Milly all over. "Well, it's definitely not the liquor that did it, Mr. Vash. Besides, nearly all these bottles are full." She declares. "What I think must have done it is this," She points to a small round wound on the side of Milly's neck.  
  
"Her stun gun couldn't have done that, and all my Derringers are unloaded and she doesn't know where I keep the bullets." Meryl muses. A small piece of paper floats to the floor as Neil's mother keeps examining Milly. I pick it up. A few things are written on it, but I don't bother to read them. The signature at the bottom is what I stare at.  
  
"Knives. Knives did this."  
  
*Keep breaking me in  
  
And this is how we will live  
  
With you and me bending  
  
Without understanding  
  
Hell, I'll go there again  
  
Can you help me I'm bent  
  
I'm so scared that I'll never  
  
Get put back together  
  
Yeah, you're breaking me in  
  
And this is how we will live  
  
With you and me bent." 


End file.
